Dem poll: Wendy Davis down by 15 in Texas

Republican Greg Abbott leads Democrat Wendy Davis by 15 points in a new Democratic poll of the Texas gubernatorial race, an improvement over his 8-point lead in the same poll in July.

The state attorney general holds a 50-35 advantage over the state senator in the survey, released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling. The poll also found that Davis’s favorability rating has worsened, falling to a net negative 6 points, while Abbott’s favorability has remained in the positive single digits.

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Wendy Davis announces gov bid

The poll stands in contrast to a survey that found Abbott with a narrower 6-point lead, conducted in the heavily Republican state last month and released Monday by the University of Texas/Texas Tribune.

“Wendy Davis needs to win independents and pull a decent amount of Republican support if she’s going to be successful, and at this early stage, she’s not doing that,” said pollster Dean Debnam in a statement. A Democrat has not won statewide office in Texas since 1994.

The poll also found that if it became a three-way race with former GOP gubernatorial hopeful Debra Medina running as an independent, Abbott would garner 47 percent of the vote, with Davis drawing 37 percent and Medina drawing 9 percent.